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All posts for the month June, 2010

Note: I’m writing this assuming you’ve seen the movie. Do NOT proceed if you haven’t seen it. Come back and read this when you’ve seen it.

To me at least, the very premise of the plot is subversive. There is NO WAY there could be a happy ending. A moving on, yes. But a happy ending? Never. The very essence of the film is the relationship between Andy and the lead toy, Woody. And the whole point in the closing episode of this trilogy is the “breaking up” of this team. Woody is the tragic hero in this saga, and it is he who is to lose the most in the equation. The sacrifice he makes at the end of the movie cements his role as the hero in the story. And to add to that, Buzz ended up with Jesse. On paper, it should be Woody and Jesse since they are cowboy-cowgirl, but like I said, the real alpha couple here is Andy and Woody. They basically followed the Star Wars model, with the initial pairing of Luke and Leia, only for them to be revealed as brother and sister, thereby opening the door for a Han Solo-Leia pairing, leaving Luke to forge on, all on his own, to fly high alone with no one to lean on, just like the recent pop culture epic heroes upon whom it is incumbent that they face the climax of their respective sagas completely and utterly ALONE — just like Frodo, like Harry Potter, and the latest to join their ranks, Woody.

From the very opening scene, the tenor of the film is somber, sobering, and simmering in a sneaky sadness. True, you’ll be laughing most of the movie, but it never lets you forget that this is the end of the trilogy, and it won’t be a neatly tied happy package at the end of it all. Andy is off to college, and the toys have been forgotten by the one person who gives their existence purpose. Tell me, how can that turn out right? It’s not like a romantic break-up, where the two parties can have a change of heart and run back to each other arms. Let’s face it, with old toys, unless you’re a vintage collector, most are thrown away, regardless of how rich the memories were. Just like many things in our lives, there are some things that once you’ve said goodbye to, there is no turning back. Sentiment aside, life is a series of letting go — letting go of toys, of your childhood, of innocence, of past loves, of family and friends when they or you marry, of your youth, of your health, of loved ones to death, and eventually the final letting go, of your own final breath. It only sounds morbid, but if you really think about it, that’s life. We weren’t really meant to stay in the same place, to be the same way, unchanged indefinitely. We’re supposed to go on a journey, an evolution where entering the new phase means letting go of the old one.

That’s the beauty of the way this third installment tackled the issue of letting go. It didn’t go the mawkish way by having Andy keeping Woody and the gang. It didn’t soften the blow by making the toys’ new life much better than what they had with Andy. It just showed that when one part of your life is over, you simply need to move on, no matter how hard, no matter how much you want to hang on to what you’ve gotten used to. The seasons give way to each other whether they want to or not. There’s no arguing with the cycles of life. So when the toys were left with Bonnie, it wasn’t necessarily better than when they were with Andy, but it wasn’t necessarily worse either. The same way you can’t really argue which is better, your life as a child, as a teen, as a single adult, as a married person, or as a septuagenarian? One is neither superior nor inferior to another. It’s merely the natural progression.

I guess that’s why the movie hit a raw nerve. You hit a certain age and you suddenly feel the rush of things in your life that are slipping quickly through your fingers; people and things and situations you’ve grown to love and depend on. And once you start to lose the stuff in your life you love dearly, you start to resent having to let go of them. The movie is a painful reminder, I guess, that the only control we have in this life, is not over situations, but over how well or how badly we roll with them.

Before I post the pictures from our landscape shoot in Bataan, let me just share my seemingly improbable string of accidents, one after another. After a long drive from Manila to Balanga, Bataan, my Fourground photo buddies just checked in at the hotel then had lunch, then proceeded to the one hour drive to Sisiman Bay in Mariveles, Bataan. We got lost looking for the elusive lighthouse, the directions to which we had zero information on, other than it was generally situated somewhere in Sisiman Bay. As we kept driving back and forth, our van had a flat tire. It didn’t bode well for what was to come. Finally, after many wrong turns and conflicting directions from different locals, we finally found the lighthouse, hidden well in a small cove, surrounded by rocks of all sizes, from as small as pebbles to as large as boulders the size of a small hut.

We were so excited to finally find our shy subject, that we were stomping mindlessly on the rocks to get to the lighthouse. I was more concerned with getting a firm foothold so I don’t slip or twist my ankles on the uneven orgy of rocks, than I was with looking at what I was stepping on. No more than a few minutes on the rocks, I take a huge step, my full weight on my descending right foot…and CRUNCH. It felt like someone punched the sole of my foot. Then a sharp pain shot straight up from the arch of my foot all the way to my knee and even my thigh. I lifted my foot and found an acacia thorn tree branch stuck to the bottom of my shoe:

Then I realized that one thorn went straight through my shoe, and impaled the sole of my right foot. I almost passed out at the realization. I had no choice but to pull the branch out quickly, and almost instantly I could feel lots of blood gushing inside my shoe. I didn’t want to look at how bad it was, because I might faint at the sight of all that blood, so I quickly hobbled to the shore and plunged my bleeding foot into the cool sea water. The moment I dipped my foot in, the water turned red. It wasn’t as painful as you’d expect, I was more worried at the thought of losing a lot of blood. But thankfully, the bleeding stopped within 5 minutes. I was able to shake off the pain, and was even able to finish our shoot unhampered. Of course thoughts of infection and tetanus would run across my mind every now and then, but the task at hand demanded my full attention. It wasn’t until after the sun had set, and we were in our van heading back to the hotel, when I realized I was in pain. The entry point started throbbing and when I went down I had to limp because it was a bit painful to stand on. I put anti-bacterial ointment, bandaged it, then within hours I was fine.

After dinner, I felt how tired I was. I took a warm bath, and I felt so weak that I practically collapsed on my folding bed to rest my weary body. As my head was about to hit the pillow, we suddenly heard a crash, and next thing I knew, the back of my head smashed into the concrete wall behind me, and I had this ringing in my head like someone hit me on the head with a large gong. Apparently, the legs of one end of my folding bed, folded the other way, making the part where my head was fall straight to the floor. My buddy Greg was able to catch the actual moment mere seconds after it happened:

I had a huge bukol at the back of my head. What a day, I was injured from head to foot. I tweeted about it and people were saying stuff like maybe I upset an elemental to account for my ill luck and that I should “apologize” for whatever unintentional affront I may have caused to them. It was just weird.

The next day, we went back to the lighthouse for a sunrise shoot, so we woke up at 3:30am, left the hotel at 4:30am, then was at the lighthouse by 5:30am. We did our shoot until the sun came out, and when the heat was beginning to beat down on us, even at the early hour of about 7:30am, we called it quits. We sat down under the shade to rest for a bit, then when it was time to go, I stood up, and as I pushed up from a seated position, I felt a sharp jab near my heel, and I saw that another thorn went through my shoe grazing the skin of my heel, thankfully, not enough to draw blood.

I quickly apologized in my head for whatever offense I may have caused, then gingerly tiptoed out of there making sure I watched every single step I made, avoiding the many acacia branches that littered the area. I’ve been impaled on time too many for one photoshoot. Thank goodness it was a productive landscape shoot, making all the injuries worth literally, the blood, sweat and tears. I’ll try to post the photos any time this week.

Since we’ve been here before (same time last year to be exact), I really didn’t bring my camera gear anymore because I didn’t really see myself taking pictures this time around. So I just brought my handy waterproof Canon D10, and my Nikon D90 “just in case”. True enough, I hardly took pictures, because we were too busy being like kids. So if you want to see photos of the awesome resort, just search for “Calicoan” on the search bar of my blog, and it’ll show you links to the 3 posts I did same time last year. It was a very simple, low-stress weekend. We practically spent 3 days soaking either under the sun or in the salt water pool.

We also spent whatever time we had out of the water, wolfing down platefuls of sinful delights like crispy pata. We stayed there for 3 days, and for 3 lunches straight, we feasted on one of the best, if not THE best crispy pata we’ve ever tasted. The balat was thin and crispy to the bite, quickly breaking down into juicy morsels with every nibble. Of course we always ordered veggies or fish with it to justify the culinary orgy we partook of. It was food porn, I tell you!

We also tried out surfing, and unexpectedly we found it quite easy to stand. We all got the hang of it on the second or third try. Maybe the background we have on wakeboarding made it a little easier to learn. The waves were small, so our instructors said it was the perfect size for beginners like us. Surprisingly, the hardest part was not finding our balance, but paddling far to where the waves were breaking. It’s much harder than you’d expect! By the time I paddled far enough to catch a wave, I was totally exhausted and out of breath. I’m just glad I tried it this time around, since we skipped the surfing part the last time we were here.

Like I said, for the most part, we just fooled around like kids. We’ve never quite behaved like this before, just having fun, not thinking of anything except relaxing and laughing and making fools of ourselves. To give you an idea, here are some samples of MANY pics we took goofing around:

All in all it was one of the most fun vacations we’ve ever had. It was inevitable that we’d get the blues coming home, given that it was so much fun, and it was way too short. As it was, we had to swap with the Playtime Girls to be able to maximize our stay there. So after 3 wonderful days, we come home recharged, armed with wicked tans and memories to last a lifetime.

I remember when I was a new DJ on radio, I got to interview a now iconic band, but who were, at that time, just newbies. They were for me the absolute worst interviewees. I couldn’t get a straight answer from any of them! Each question I ask, they would deflect with an intentionally stupid answer, obviously not taking it seriously. I understand that they were doing it to appear cool, but of course they succeeded at my expense. Unfortunately for me, I played the role of jester to the eventual rock royalty.

She’s phenomenal! one of the best singers EVER from any singing contest. And the idea that she’s the mom of Oscar-nominee Gabourey Sidibe boggles the mind! This blew me away. Wow, I hope she goes far in this contest. Plus it’s a big plus that she sang one of my all time favorite songs, “At Last”.

Devin & Glenn (NSFW and Rated R)

As a PSA to overturn California’s Prop 8, actors/writers Justin Long (Drew Barrymore’s boyfriend) and Mike White offers a hilarious argument to allow gay marriage: let gays suffer like the rest of the straights. Even Eminem, who surprisingly now supports gay marriage offered the same argument: why should straight couple be the only ones to suffer?

Super Mario Paper Stop Motion

This amazing stop motion video was supposedly done by Japanese kids who obviously had lots of spare time and use post-its for this genius animation. Wow, I can’t believe they put so much effort into this. Any Mario fan would appreciate this.

Angry Deer Attacks Dog & Cat

I’m going to have nightmares because of this video! I hated the part where the dog’s owner started screaming. Obviously the deer was just protective of her fawn, but I’m a dog lover, and he was posing no threat to the young herbivore. My guts were in my mouth watching the poor dog take a beating.

Two-Faced Kitten

This news item has a sad addendum, because Two-Face already died. I guess animals born with such anatomical defects are not really expected to live long. They are genetics oddities that nature ensures won’t thrive.

For this next video, humor me on this one. Please stay until the 2:00 minute mark, because it gets REALLY better…

Praise Song & Dance

The literal choreography is my favorite! I don’t know, but watching that made me really happy, for some reason.

Television Is A Drug

Sounds familiar? Thank heavens I’m no longer the couch potato I used to be. I could stay in front of the TV all day and still want more. Now if I watch too long, I get a guilty knot at the pit of my stomach, like I wasted half of my life.

Gay-Themed McDonald’s Ad

A surprisingly progressive commercial from a mainstream company like McDonald’s, bereft of the usual gimmicky humor that accompanies gay-themed ads. It’s unflinching and surprising in the way it tackled a timely issue.

Funny, right? School is the fountain of knowledge from which we drink to quench our parched minds with wisdom from the ages. Not! Seriously, some of the funniest quotable quotes have been heard in the hallowed halls of the academe. Deliciously ironic.

June 1, 2009 → The Top Ten Dumbest Things You Heard Anyone Say In School

Girltemperamental – Our math teacher entered the classroom and said: “Get out…get out…”, so we started exiting one by one. Then he said: “Where are you going?” We answered: “Sir, you said get out.” He said angrily: “I wasn’t finished! I was going to say, get out your calculators!”

Abernathy – Teacher: “Class, you know jumping jack? You know, you open the box and jack will jump?”

No name – Our teacher asked us to bring colored puto. So the next day, we all bought from Goldilocks their colored puto. Our teacher was so angry. He yelled: “I said bring colored puto! Colored putograp!”